20 minutes of gameplay outs Sims 4 Premium Subscription

22 July 2014

By Miklós Szecsei

Developer Maxis has released a 20 minute gameplay walkthrough of upcoming The Sims 4. This is the same game content that was shown off to attendees at E3 in June of this year. Maxis cautions that this is beta gameplay that is at least a month old already. Still, it’s looking good.

The video is introduced and commented on by producers Ryan Vaughan and Graham Nardone – both waste no time in showing off the new features you can expect to see. The new emotion-based gameplay is front-and-centre for most of the video, but what’s more interesting are the new Build Mode features that appear in the last half of the video. They’ve added some nice new tools and tricks, including the much requested ability to change foundation and wall height on the fly. At last!

Despite the neat glimpse at some fun-looking gameplay, the video has caused some online controversy, which is unsurprising because EA. This time the fuss is thanks to a glimpse of the game’s UI at around the 13:00 minute mark, when a prompt to sign up for a Sims 4 Premium Subscription appears on screen.

Whether or not the public was meant to see that screen is debatable; it’s visible for the briefest of moments. It’s likely that both Vaughan and Nardone didn’t even think about it while navigating through the game’s UI. Whatever the case may be, it looks like the game will be getting a Premium Subscription offer much like what was made available in Battlefield 4.

If you can’t read that blurry text, it says the following: “The Sims 4 Premium: Save on new packs with early access and exclusive items. Become a Premium Member to get early access to 3 new packs, with exclusive items. Your Sims can throw a spooky costume party, camp in the great outdoors, and toast to the new year in style.”

Whether or not these “new packs” reference the inevitable deluge of Sims 4 expansion packs, or whether they’re smaller, cosmetic packs like the Sims XYZ Stuff packs, is yet to be seen. There’s no pricing structure either so it’s not clear whether or not a Sims 4 Premium Account is worth it. If it gives you access to the first three full expansion packs for less, and a few weeks early, then it might be a nice feature for ardent Sims fans.

We’ll have to wait and see how EA plays this one; we’ll keep you updated.